Does the Internet Drive Disorders/Depression, or Vice Versa?

This is quite the article, titled "Is the Internet Making Us Crazy?"  Apparently, there are others as well--(I haven't read the one referenced here yet)

I agree with the studies citing that the internet totally feeds on our OCD and ADD tendencies, but do the OCD and ADD tendencies engender heavy internet usage?  Page 3 of this article talks about the possible "fix" that we get from checking email and social media.  It's like a drug or gambling addiction.  And it lowers our attention spans; we don't even fully read longer blog posts, articles, etc,  because we're already fishing for the next fix (I nearly didn't read the whole article when I saw how long it was). Yet we can't seem to stay away. Page 5 of this article calls this "FOMO," where we are "utterly unable to look away for Fear Of Missing Out."

And this just after I watched the following commercial the other day.


So funny!  But also very pointed that our social media frenzy (mine included!) isn't living.

("I read an article--well, I read the majority of an article online. . . this [facebook] is living...that is not a real puppy!  That is too small to be a real puppy. . . .")

I do love the connections with family all over, and people I know from all the places I've lived, and also about three friends I've never even met IRL (In Real Life).  Rob's got bunches and bunches of internet friends, and we've slowly met them IRL whenever we happen to travel close enough to any of them.  He's a hermit, but a very social hermit, haha.  He, and they, hide out online.  What an oxymoron.

It's interesting that page 4 says that even when they realize heavy internet usage can increase depression and loneliness, "they have repeatedly made unsuccessful efforts to cut back. But if this is unhealthy, it’s clear many Americans don’t want to be well."  Um, yeah.  We like feeling connected.

I'm a little irritated with the studies that say that there is such a connection between heavy online use and mood disorders, depression, and even suicidal tendencies.  We had plenty of that before the internet.  And I was plenty OCD and ADD before the internet.  For instance, the following comic made me lol at myself years ago, possibly before the term "lol" existed:

Which one causes (or brings out) the other?  The internet, or the disorder? But I do agree that internet use often displaces sleep, exercise, and face-to-face time.  I agree that "Technology can make us forget important things we know about life." But, I also posit that technology can help remind us of important things, and keep us connected to loved ones far and near.  I love some of the inspirational phrases I read on fb and pinterest.  I love the connection to other people.  'Course, I was a people person looooooong before the internet existed to the public.

I do wish the end of the article had gone in more depth to how we are the shapers of our internet use, and how to keep our minds emotionally and socially healthy.  Or that it had at least linked to an article with suggestions on healthy internet use.  Since internet use is now like eating.  We can't not eat, even if we are addicted to foods that hurt our health.  Yet dieting is hard because we can't go without food completely, like an alcoholic who decides they simply can't have a single drop of their vice.  The internet is like food now; we can't imagine not internetting.  We communicate via email/fb for business, familial & friend connection and recreation.  I can't imagine going back to only snail mail.

Still, this opened my eyes that I should cut back and pay more attention to how I use the internet.  Ahem.  After I finish reading all your emails and blog and fb posts. . . .  And bury a few hats online and off.  ; )

(And for the fun of it, here's an article positing that the "making us crazy" trend stories are what are making us crazy.  Hehe.  Though it does point out that we are affected by our heavy internet use)

Self-Compassion

Why is it that we are so quick to be hard on ourselves, to see everything we didn't do right, didn't accomplish; every way in which we aren't good enough?  Why do we fixate on our insecurities, comparing our worst (even if known only to us) to someone else's perceived best?  (And by the way, that someone is also comparing their weaknesses to my strengths, just as I can only see their good and my bad)

I was skimming some tips for raising happy kids.  Laugh with them (check), be positive (check). . . until I came to one of the 10 suggested tips:  Foster self-compassion.  Wow.  So simple, yet so cathartic.

 It's interesting that while the article is focusing on how to raise happy kids, this tip is aimed at the parents:   "Parental guilt is its own industry. . . ."  Said another way, guilt is its own industry.  I've been working on this for years now, inspired by a husband who has helped me understand how damaging the guilting is, the beating myself up for every way I don't measure up to a fictitious, impossible standard.

Sometimes I'm really good at it, and other times little thoughts creep in and whisper, "Oh come on.  You know you're not good enough.  You'll just mess up again. . . ."  And for a brief time, before I kick that stinkin' thinkin' to the curb, I believe it.

Here is the advice itself:
"Research suggests that self-compassion is a very important life skill, helping people stay resilient in the face of challenges. Self-compassion is made up of mindfulness, the ability to manage thoughts and emotions without being carried away or repressing them, common humanity, or empathy with the suffering of others, and self-kindness, a recognition of your own suffering and a commitment to solving the problem. Parents can use self-compassion when coping with difficulties in child-rearing. In doing so, they can set an example for their kids."

I really think that guilt and frustration over things are only productive if they inspire us to try again tomorrow, like Anne of Green Gables, who loved each fresh new day, a new slate to write upon.  If we let them bring us down, then we're just trapped in this cycle of believing we're not "good enough," as if there's a realistic standard of what is or isn't good enough.

What I like about this little paragraph on self-compassion is that we are not asked to deny or repress frustrations over unmet expectations, simply faking it 'till we make it, or pretending it's all ok (which only causes us to feel like a fraud on top of everything else).  Instead, it's just a way of trying to be kind to ourselves.  To step aside for a moment and look on with a third eye, mindfully managing our thoughts without falling into complete hopelessness (which usually means binging on chocolate and other vices, am I right?  For which we have even MORE to agonize over when tomorrow we realize how far off the diet we fell, on top of all the other ways we blew it).
I can look at my own woes and insecurities, failings, weaknesses, unmet expectations (especially the ones where I am the saboteur), recognize that life is hard, and then be nice to myself and realize that life is, well, REAL.

I really want to focus on helping my kids learn this beautiful skill of self-compassion, but I like that this article infers that if we as parents practice self-compassion, our kids may be generally happier.  

Well, in between their whining and complaining about housework, anyway.  : )

Why my blog is titled Realistic Idealist

My blog (and life) are both a place where idealism and reality collide-- sometimes it's not a pretty picture.

But it's OUR picture. 

Speaking of our "picture," here are a couple of our crazy "real" moments, regardless of what ideal I had in mind:

(And btw, a perfect of example of having a good ideal but being realistic is that I can't get these pictures to show up bigger, without them cutting off parts of the pics.  So you'll have to click on them to see them bigger.  Plus, whole patches of text are randomly showing up with white backgrounds.  Whatever.  And then there are blogger's spacing issues.  Don't even get me started on those....  And another perfect example is this blog post; I started it at the end of May, but it took me nearly a month to finish and post it)

Bryce fell asleep on our bed (we often separate the boys until they're asleep because the older 3 sleep in the same room with Bryce & Nathan sharing a bed, and they just don't fall asleep well if left together, and instead talk or fight. But that's not the funny story behind this picture.)

So I tried to get Bryce up and send him down the hall to go to his bed, and instead of making it even partway down the hall, he laid down right on top of laundry and fell asleep there (I hope it was the clean laundry pile, not the dirty one!).

Carter loves to mimic, and spent a lot of energy squeezing himself in between his brothers and under their blanket.  What's funny about this picture is that the intention was to READ the scriptures, not WEAR them.  I grabbed the camera and snapped the photo when I saw the boys putting their scriptures on their heads.  I sure do love those kiddos with all my heart.

Bryce and Nathan did a cute little magic show in a school talent show consisting of 3 tricks, one of them done with string.  Since the leaders asked the boys to have string that could be easily seen from the audience, I tried to dye it blue.  As you can see, it was quite effective.  In fact, the dye didn't come off my hands for a good 3-5 days.  But oh how cute their silly little tricks were.  They were so ill-prepared when they auditioned, and one of their tricks was to "levitate" a brother.  It was roll-your-eyes obvious how they did it, yet that's what made it so cute, and I think it actually duped a few first graders.  ; )

So, our "picture" is not a magazine picture, the type that even strategically and artistically place color-coordinated out-of-place items when trying to present something delightfully "messy." 

But it's still OUR picture.

THEIRS (magazine pics/commercials):

OURS:

(I mean, seriously.  Look at the clash, from the pink floral couch and cushions, to the 70s peach floral comforter, to the black, white, and brightly-covered crocheted blanket, to Nathan's rocket-ship feetsies and Bryce's blue "star" blanket)

But also look at their ingenuity in setting up a little fort that gave them each an individual room.  It's the messy (really messy, not made-to-look-messy-but-picture-perfect  messy) that I love, because it came from my boys.
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Why do we pretend we have these clean houses (and you OCD people out there who really do, that's just not fair; there's no way I can compete with you OR the magazines), apologizing when people come to the door and see how our house actually looks most of the time? (not including when we crash crisis-clean before family comes to visit, or before a baby/bridal shower or book club night).

Maybe that's why I like this saying so much.  It's a good excuse for a messy house, right?  RIGHT??

 I also like this saying, because I rarely get Plan A to work.  Like, almost never.  I constantly "tetris" in my mind ways to adapt to a plan e, f, p, t, and even u.

Which is probably why my life is a lot like this messy knot.  But hey; it's MY knot.

And these are the munchkins that are my mess of slow success, my realistic ideal.

And since my success revolves around those busy munchkins, I'm happy to see them growing and learning, even amidst all their bellyaching, whining, and general resistance to chores:

Those last two pics pretty much wrap up my post.  The Easter snapshot after church, and then walking in the door and asking boys to help set the table for an Easter lunch.  But at least, as a realist, I didn't put high expectations on that Easter meal.  We had nachos with black beans, corn, and salsa.  : )

And that's OK.

Surprise Chores

Not scratch and sniff.

But definitely scratch.

Took the idea from Stacy's pin.  The instructions are here.  It's a "surprise" chore chart with homemade "scratch-it-off" paint.  I only used 1/2 tsp metallic acrylic paint & 1/4 tsp dish soap, but I could see through the paint, so I also added one drop of black paint, which made it dark enough that it wasn't see-through.  However, they are hard to scratch off, so next time I'm going to cover the card stock with a piece of clear contact paper first (I read in the notes that they're easier to scratch off this way). 

It went well.  I gave a point system to the chores depending on the difficulty.  Right now the boys get "points" (which are really check marks on a simple excel sheet I made up) towards a prize of their choice.  They usually get the points for how cheerful they are when asked to obey.  These chores, when checked off, also add points to their chart.

The boys were more excited to scratch off the chores and start them than they were to finish them, but it was still really good, and it meant a lot to them to get their points in the end.  I picked items that they could usually do anytime, rather than things that NEED to be done as normal chores, like dishes and laundry.

Here was my particular list of chores:
cleaning light switches 1 pt
wiping off doorknobs 1 pt
wiping off the front of the fridge 1 pt
wiping off oven, microwave & dishwasher. 2 pts
wiping down shelves in fridge 5 pts (or 1 for 1 pt)
wiping down baseboards in one room 1 pt  (make at least 4 of these)
sweeping bathroom floors and hall 2 pts
sweeping outside the back door (lift mats and toys and stuff) 2 pts
scrubbing and wiping down outside slides and two tables 2 pts
windexing front glass door, inside and out 1 pt
dusting one room; pictures, desks, bookshelves; anything that can get dusty 2 pt
cleaning up legos 3 pts
shred newspaper 1 pt (for our compost pile in the backyard)
cleaning and wiping down boys’ toilet 3 pts
sweeping computer room and kitchen 2 pts
sweeping dining room and front entryway 2 pts
take out recycle garbage 1 pt
organizing toys in Carter’s room 4 pts
wipe down baseboards in one room
finding shoes in house and putting them where they 3 pts

I am definitely going to do this again, with the added suggestion of putting clear contact paper over the card stock after I've written down the jobs.

Ultimate Camping List

Since we love camping and never made ourselves a master camping list, I wish I knew how to pin this blog post, or re-post it here, but at least I can offer the link, right? 

And steal the photo:

And paste the list:

1. A Mobile kitchen: a bin that houses all our cooking essentials and a few other odds and ends.
2. Mini Survival kit:  a go-everywhere kit with random survival and medical supplies (although we still also bring a larger first aid kit).

You can also easily make dedicated camping kits for personal hygiene and dog supplies (see lists below).
To make packing the rest of the gear easier, we try to keep most if it together. We turned a corner of our garage, and a corner of our guest room closet into ‘gear closets’.  They house the aforementioned camping kits, as well as our sleeping bags, sleeping pads, tent, tarp, climbing/kayaking gear, backpacks etc. When it’s time to pack, everything is easy to find.
When preparing for a camping trip we throw our mobile kitchen and survival kit in the van and use the checklist below (download a PDF of this Ultimate Camping Checklist here) to gather/remember everything else.
THINGS TO DO (some a day or two ahead of time IF needed)

• Take care of pet needs (if leaving any behind).
• Freeze water bottles for cooler (2 or 3 nights before–I like nalgenes, but don’t fill them too full)
• Do Laundry
• Stop mail or newspaper (depending on length of trip)
• Take garbage/recycling to curb
• Get gas, check all fluids in car, get them changed if it’s time
• Buy your groceries
• Get Ice
• Prep whatever veggies or other food items you need to prep early (see these dinner menus if you’re unclear)
• Charge camera, cell phones, iPod
• Turn down heat or A/C
• Water indoor and outdoor plants

THINGS TO BRING
CLOTHES (everyone has their own bag)

• Kid clothes (with thermals depending on the temp)
• Big people clothes
• Dirty clothes bag (pillow cases or extra stuff sacks)
• Shoes.  Lots of shoes.
• Socks
• Underwear and/or Diapers
• Swimwear
• Sunglasses

OUTERWEAR (this all gets thrown in one big bag)

• Hats (warm and cold) and mittens or gloves
• Rain Coats
• Poofy Coats
• Snow pants if the season calls for it

HYGIENE (can easily be turned into a dedicated camping kit that always stays together)

• Hair fasteners, bandanna or buff
• Feminine hygiene products
• Brush/comb
• Face wash
• Hand wipes or baby wipes
• Toothbrush and Toothpaste
• Floss
• Deodorant
• Biodegradable Shampoo
• Towels
• Bum wipes and diaper rash cream
• Toilet paper

Tips on bathing kids while camping — here.
SLEEPING

• Pillows
• Tent
• Tarp to go under the tent
• Sleeping pads
• Sleeping bags
• Blankets
• Bouldering pad
• Dog bed if your pooch is spoiled
• Small broom and dust pan for the tent
• A piece of rug or carpet for the tent entrance

Tips on kids and napping while camping — here.
WATER ITEMS

• Water jugs (estimate roughly a gallon per person per day, including washing, dishes, etc.)
• Water bottles
• Water filter

FOOD/KITCHEN

• Mobile kitchen (see PDF list here for what’s in this box)
• Cooler (with frozen water bottles) or Ice
• Roaster sticks
• Table
• Stove/Grill
• Propane
• Extra tarp (in case it starts raining on the kitchen) and rope

KIDS

• Books/DVDs
• Coloring books
• Kid pack
• Kid sunglasses
• Sand/Dirt toys
• Noise/music maker

FIRST AID

• Aloe
• First Aid Box/Kit
• Prescriptions
• Tylenol (kid & adult)
• Sunblock
• Bug repellant
• Survival kit

DOG STUFF (can easily be turned into a dedicated camping kit that always stays together)

• Dog food
• Leash
• Bowls
• Poop bags
• Frisbee or Tennis Balls
• Dog medicine

OTHER

• Cell phone charger
• Camera
• Extra Batteries
• Camp chairs or Crazy Creek Chairs
• Wood/kindling/newspaper and a lighter (the lighter should be in your kitchen box)
• Lanterns/headlamps
• Hammock
• Caribiners, clothespins, and rope.
• Kid carrier
• Day pack
• Gear (climbing, biking, river sports?)
• Extra towels
• Camp shower or other washing mechanism
• Small hatchet or axe
• Small shovel (for digging catholes)

Finally, a few ideas on how I pack so that I can find everything…

• Make each of the kids their own clothing bag that they’re responsible for keeping clean and tidy (once they’re old enough, obviously).  Their little personal hygiene bag goes in here too.
• Give each kid a separate small bag for their own entertainment items for the tent (books, headlamps, toys, etc.)–they’ll love putting it together… with our without supervision depending on age.
• In the car is the car entertainment bag–it stays there all the time–in it are cell phone chargers, battery chargers, iPod and other electronics stuff.
• All outer wear is in one giant duffle bag.
• Sleeping bags etc are stuffed into little crevices here and there in the car (or in a large tote if your lucky enough to have a truck), around the kitchen box (which houses my little lantern), propane tank, and water jugs.  First aid is in a dry box.  Dog stuff is kept in a bag that is easily reachable for the drive to camp.
• All odds and ends are in one extra duffle of just-in-case stuff (I love when I have to get in this duffle).

When I get home, the gear and kits go back in the closet. Clothing bags go straight to the hamper.  And the other stuff (electronics, entertainment, outerwear, and headlamps) is separated out and put back into its place as daily-use gear.

New Web Series = a Crack at Fame & a Cruise

Pretty Darn Funny is a new webisode or three put on by Deseret Book.  Last weekend at Time Out For Women I saw a video contest revolving around said webisodes, and decided to share a few oldy-but goodies from my blog. 
 
So there's a video of me out there.  ONLINE.  For anyone to see.  

Of me making a fool of myself.*

 I was super nervous, and I turn into a moron in front of the camera.  Plus I rushed it.  And I make weird faces!

BUT.

Please vote for me anyway!  If I actually win I get a free cruise out of it.  : )




Above is an embedded video off of youtube, but to vote for me you MUST go to the Pretty Darn Funny website and click on the "thumbs up" symbol under my video.  You can find my video under "contest" and then "recent."**

UPDATED 5/4/12: Thank you everyone for your votes so far!  You have gotten me from about 30th place to 7th place.  Keep voting out there! (Contest ends May 31st)

*And I am not just saying that so I can drum up mock sympathy.  I always cringe when I see myself on camera.  It's not a pretty picture.  Plus, the humidity killed my attempt to have pretty, curly hair for the contest.

**You would not offend me in the least if you, um, *cough cough* shared my video even with complete strangers and told them to vote for me, too . . . .  ; )

Blue and Gold 2012

Well, for those of you who know, I was called to be a cubmaster of our local pack.  The annual Blue & Gold banquet was last night, and I was thrilled that the theme was Resourcefulness with a western theme.  There's just so much you can do inexpensively with a cowboy theme.

And we did.

Drumroll, please . . .

You may remember that I was part of a previous Blue andGold banquet that had a western theme.  So it was easy to re-use the invite idea of a cubs scout wanted "poster" : )

(Though I knew I wasn't going to make another cake from scratch.  And by scratch I mean making a cake pan from scratch and decorating the cooked cake.  The mix itself was good ole' Betty Crocker's handy work.)

 

Cub Scout "Wanted" Poster, complete with a picture of a cub scout.  : )

 And there it is.  All I added was a date and time to it for the email invites.  The hard copy invites were folded in half with this pic on the front, and then the boys wrote the date, time, and; place on the inside of the cards.

Front of room--open barn doors, with a slide projector screen up, as well as a small table for awards.

It's dark, but the right side wall has a "picture window" of a sunset

Once again, it's dark, but the back right wall has another "picture" window of the sunset, as does the back of the room.

Back right mural of sunset; you can see two tables in the distance that were set up as vest-decorating stations

Adjacent from the vest-making stations, also in the back, were the buffet tables.  Didn't think to take a pic that night when the food was actually on them. 

I wish I had taken a picture of the murals on the left.  Those "picture windows" both showed night skies.  Cool, right?  Our cub committee chair had made all those murals for a YSA stake activity a year earlier. 

It's hard to see, but if you look up at the front, under the projection screen, she also made these cool hay bales; they're those yellow stacked boxes.  She just covered boxes with yellow paper, used a little brown paint to make "hay" marks here and there, cut the edges of the paper to look like hay sticking out, and then tied twine around the hay "bundle" in two places.  So cute, and so inexpensive to make.

If you look at the picture above this one, you can see that in the middle of the room, facing the "stage" are two long tables.  We honored the cub scouts and let them sit there.

One of the wolf leaders even made them individual, personalized place mats.  It was their special night.

Pie tins, mason jars, napkins, and rootbeer pitchers (empty at the time of the picture-taking)

 I thought it would be so fun to eat out of pie tins and drink out of mason jars.  I gathered disposable pie tins, and between myself and a bear leader we provided 90ish pint mason jars (and some were the 8 oz ones for little siblings).  And guess what?  Not a single "cup" broke that night!  It probably helped that the cultural hall is carpeted....

The cub committee chair already had the red-and-white checkered tablecloths on a huge roll to go with her rockin' murals.  On the round tables she cut squares that made for a nice overlay.  I wish I had taken pictures of the centerpieces, which didn't come until that night.  The bears made them, and they alternated between campfires and quart mason jars with some beans and candles (candles that the boys made).  The flames of the campfires were yellow, red, and orange tissue paper coming up out of real sticks glued to real rocks in the form of a campfire.  They were so creative.

If you look back up at the pic above, you can see a little tag hanging off of the pitcher there.  It says "sarsaparilla," which is apparently how it is really spelled, and that's a sarsaparilla leaf/plant on the tag:

Sarsaparilla tags, pronounced "sasparilla" (Rootbeer tags)

That night we also had sticks of butter on the tables, with little signs next to them:

Axle Grease (butter)

Napkins/Silverware

Cub Scout Cowboy closeup; this is what I printed for the napkin rings.  Thank you to Rob for cutting 90 of these out since my hands were still recovering from cutting out a lot of paper bag vests.

I just love photoshop.  Getting to take the cub's hat off, create hair in its place, stick a new cowboy hat on, slap on a circle of barbed wire, feels creative to me even though I'm just merging existing pictures.  I did a LOT of photoshop for much of the artwork, often merging different artwork and even adding my own.  I don't know how I ever lived without a wacom tablet before.

I noticed during the evening that when kids (and adults!) slipped off their napkin rings, many of them ended up being worn as regular rings.  So they served dual purposes!

Wild West leather bound and western-imprinted books that I found at a local thrift shop for less than a dollar apiece.  Thought it would be fun to add them to the decor.  They added a nice touch.  If I ever get to the project I actually bought them for, I'll post pics.

When the kids walked in that night, there was a big chalkboard out in the foyer where I had written very quickly, "Howdy!"  I noticed that throughout the evening that little kids and big kids (including adults!) drew artwork on it, often western pictures.  It was a last-minute idea to use the chalkboard to block the hallway (we're always trying to keep scouts away from running around in the halls, which they are VERY prone to do), and it ended up doubling in purpose as well, keeping those little siblings' attention.

Vest station.  Plus you can see some of one of the picture windows up close there in the background.

Once the boys got in the room, we had two stations set up at back; one for putting together a cowboy ensemble, and the other to keep them occupied before and during the evenings' plans.  This is a pic of the vest station.  You can see the bandanas on the left, and then three piles of pre-cut paper bags (I do believe I may be getting carpal tunnel, which I could definitely tell after cutting out more than 20 of these).  Markers were set out so the boys could decorate them, and paper "sheriff" badges were also supplied along with glue.  If you look back up at the picture you can also see the red bandanas on the left, which the boys wore around their necks.

Paper bag vest close up.  It was COMPLETELY worth the effort to make them.  The boys and siblings decorated and wore them all evening.  I think they were one of the many "hits" of the night.

The sheriff badges.  I just cut a piece of yellow construction paper down to 81/2 x 11" and printed them off and cut them out.  Easy peasy, and another fun touch. And by easy peasy, I mean it most likely took me less than an hour to find clip art I liked, prep it in photoshop to my taste, copy a bunch of them on a page, print them all off, and cut them out.  It did take longer than that, even on this one little detail, but that's because I was getting interrupted while I was working on it.

Snake in the Hole bean bag toss

I picked up a pirate-themed toddler-sized bean bag board awhile ago (off of freecycle) that I used for Bryce's pirate-themed b-day party, and I just did it over with brown paper and some new western graphics, namely, snakes.  : ) 

Game name

It was Bryce's idea to have the "S" in snake actually BE a snake.  It was also his idea to have one of the beanbag holes be the "O" in Hole.  So creative, Bryce!  And I ended up finding a totally great graphic of that snake curled up in a circle.
I also drew (with a wacom tablet, not pen & paper) the snake that's coiled up.  I found a graphic that I liked, but it was a photograph of an embroidered patch.  So I just re-drew it.  It was my first time drawing something from scratch in photoshop.  'Course, I made an empty layer over the patch pic, traced over the outline, and then went in and free-handed the details.  But STILL!  Cool.  And why completely freehand when you can cheat?  Hehe.

Baby sock beanbags

 I didn't have any beanbags small enough (who knows what I used for Bryce's party), and somehow the idea came to me to use socks.  I didn't have time to sort through the boys' socks and pull out mismatches, which was kinda how the idea came to me, so I bought a package of baby socks, folded the edges down inside, and then stitched across the top once I had filled them with beans.  Jeffrey, Bryce, Nathan, Rob and I all sewed shut at least one bag; everyone wanted in on the action.  I think it was faster to do it by hand than find and unpack the sewing machine.  They looked so nifty!

The beanbag toss was another hit.  It was certainly more chaotic, because kids loved throwing those beanbags around, rather than trying to get them in the holes, but at the end of the night, they liked them so much that I asked all the scouts to help me put all my stuff back in my van (a very smart webelos leader's idea), and gave them each one to take home with them as a reward.  They went nuts.  And the cost?  I already had the beans, and 12 socks (6 pair) cost me about $4.  The excitement of the kids especially at the end of the night when I let them each take one home?  PRICELESS.  I'll just go buy another set of socks and let my boys sew them up again so that we have a set at home now.

The guests

 We pretty much used all the chairs, and we had 80 chairs set up, so we had a GREAT turnout.

Skit

We had skits inbetween a slideshow presentation, awards, and dinner.  This was one done by the webelos den.

Bryce

I don't think Bryce stopped smiling the entire evening.  Looks like we did our job well.  And how do you like those chaps he's wearing?  I bought them at our local thrift shop months ago as we were working on Nathan's cowboy halloween costume, and they were too big for Nathan.  Cost?  $1.  They came unzipped a little at the bottom from Bryce running around, but they fit him just right, and he LOVED wearing them.

"Water!  We need Water!" they cried as they pulled themselves toward a water pitcher.

 Another skit, done by the Wolves and our one Bear.

The boys at their seats of honor

The boys, watching the slideshow of pictures of them over the last year

And now, for my favorite part.  The naming of the food.

So let it be written, so let it be done.
In no particular order:

Not your ordinary garden-variety snake.  These are ALL BEEF snakes.  So ironic! (Beef hotdogs)

Armadillo Guts (Chili for the snakes-in-a-blanket)

Bessie's very Frozen Bounty (Ice cream to go with the cobbler cookoff)

Cow Feed (Salad)

Cactus Juice (Water).  Which we served at the good ole' watering hole.  Nathan loved this so much that he's been asking me all day today for more cactus juice.  Hehe.

Hardtack (Biscuits).  Yes, I know hardtack is a sailor term.  But still fun to use for play cowboys.

Grubs (Chicken Nuggets).  My, don't these look--um--tasty?  Musta been, 'cuz the boys gobbled them up in about 5 minutes.

Hay (Grated Cheese).  To sprinkle on the snakes-in-a-blanket, of course.

Mississippi Mud (Mustard)

This isn't a cowboy term, but I searched and searched, and decided to pick this from a diner lingo website.  If you want ketchup on something, you say "paint it red."  For instance, for a burger you would say: Burn it (cook the meat), run it through the garden (add lettuce and pickles), pin a rose on it (a tomato), and paint it red (add ketchup).  Fun stuff!  That's where I got the mississippi mud as well.

Pickled Fish Eyes (Relish)

Roadkill (Cobbler).  One of my favorite food names.  One of our wolf den leaders won the cook-off.

Prairie Strawberries (Beans).  Or Billy-bob-beans.  But the former was an actual cowboy term for their beans.  Apparently, cow chips were also termed "prairie . . ."-- prairie coal.  Ew.

Snakes in a blanket (hot dogs).  The original.

We had a watering hole set up as well.  I loved the graphic I found of a pump.  It's a good thing, too, because I didn't like a single one of any of the other water pump clip art images I looked at.

All in all, it was a great evening.  I really think the boys loved it, and it's something they'll remember for a long time.  We just kept their favorite pack meeting the highlight of the year.  : )

Next to Pinewood Derby, of course.  Ahem.